Inconsistencies Seen in Efforts to Prevent Sales to Minors of M-rated Games; Proposed Guidelines Show Industry a Path to Protecting Children and Serving Parents

Tri-State CRI members are among the members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) who have developed recommended guidelines for U.S. retailers to keep “Mature” (M)-rated video games out of the hands of youths. The new guidelines arrive among continuing concerns that retailers have not done enough to prevent sales to minors of video games containing graphic violence, strong sexual content and racist themes.

While shareholders recognize that the sale of appropriate video games to children requires the cooperation and collaboration of the entire video game industry including the retailers, game developers and producers, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board rating system, government legislators and consumers, they believe that retailers can better protect shareholder value by making a genuine commitment to keep video games with graphic violence, strong sexual content, and racist themes from minors. Research on violent media that is interactive -- such as video and computer games – suggests that it has a stronger and more lasting effect on violent behavior of youths.

In recent years, members of ICCR, including Tri-State CRI members the American Baptist Church Home Mission Society, the Sisters of St. Joseph, Carondelet and the Dominican Sisters of Caldwell NJ have addressed retailers in corporate dialogues and shareholder resolutions to develop, strengthen, and implement their policies.

After working effectively with major retailers that have policies and programs in place, including Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart, and Circuit City, shareholders pulled together the “best practices” from these policies into one cohesive set of guidelines, and now call for their strict implementation. Shareholders challenge retailers who have not yet done so, to create strong and effective policies.

The newly recommended guidelines address in-store and online violent video game sales and call on retailers to:

• Post video game sales policies prominently in stores and online;
• Display signs and brochures to raise awareness among parents and others;
• Restrict advertising of M-rated games in youth-oriented media;
• Establish an online method of checking the age of buyers;
• Train employees on the video games sales policy;
• Program cash registers to reminder cashiers about age rules;
• Conduct “mystery shopper” programs and other internal audits; and
• Separate M-Rated video games from youth-oriented video games.